Turner Set for Four-Race BMW GT3 Program

Turner Motorsport is set to make its return to SRO Motorsports America competition, with a four-race Blancpain GT World Challenge America program confirmed.

The longtime World Challenge entrant will field a BMW M6 GT3 for the Japanese pairing of Takuya Shirasaka and Naoto Takeda, beginning with next weekend’s round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

It will be followed up by outings at Watkins Glen, Road America as well as the season-ending round at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The entry, which will compete for GT3 Am class honors, expands on Shirasaka and Takeda’s series debut last year with Turner at Utah Motorsports Campus, in what was then a one-off event.

“They loved it,” team owner Will Turner told Sportscar365 of last year’s race.

“They’ve been talking about it all winter. Just with the schedule of what they’re doing over there, it only works for four races.”

Both drivers took part in an acclimatization run of CTMP last weekend, driving a road car around the challenging Canadian road course ahead of their competitive debuts.

Turner said it’s unlikely the team will do any additional SRO America races this year, beyond the newly confirmed four-event program, due to its busy schedule in IMSA that includes full-season GT3 and GT4 BMW entries.

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365 as well as the recently launched e-racing365 Web site for electric racing. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com/SPEED Channel, and contributes to other publications worldwide. Contact John